Books+ Search Results

American revolutions : a continental history, 1750-1804

Title
American revolutions : a continental history, 1750-1804 / Alan Taylor.
ISBN
9780393082814
0393082814
Edition
First edition.
Publication
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2016]
Copyright Notice Date
©2016
Physical Description
xvii, 681 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Summary
The American Revolution is often portrayed as a high-minded, orderly event whose capstone, the Constitution, provided the ideal framework for a democratic, prosperous nation. Alan Taylor, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, gives us a different creation story in this magisterial history of the nation's founding. Rising out of the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, Taylor's Revolution builds like a ground fire overspreading Britain's mainland colonies, fueled by local conditions, destructive, hard to quell. Conflict ignited on the frontier, where settlers clamored to push west into Indian lands against British restrictions, and in the seaboard cities, where commercial elites mobilized riots and boycotts to resist British tax policies. When war erupted, Patriot crowds harassed Loyalists and nonpartisans into compliance with their cause. Brutal guerrilla violence flared all along the frontier from New York to the Carolinas, fed by internal divisions as well as the clash with Britain. Taylor skillfully draws France, Spain, and native powers into a comprehensive narrative of the war that delivers the major battles, generals, and common soldiers with insight and power. With discord smoldering in the fragile new nation through the 1780s, nationalist leaders such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton sought to restrain unruly state democracies and consolidate power in a Federal Constitution. Assuming the mantle of "We the People," the advocates of national power ratified the new frame of government. But their opponents prevailed in the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, whose vision of a western "empire of liberty" aligned with the long-standing, expansive ambitions of frontier settlers. White settlement and black slavery spread west, setting the stage for a civil war that nearly destroyed the union created by the founders.
Format
Books
Language
English
Added to Catalog
December 21, 2016
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Colonies
Land
Slaves
Rebels
Allies
Loyalties
Wests
Oceans
Shocks
Republics
Partisans
Legacies.
Citation

Available from:

Loading holdings.
Unable to load. Retry?
Loading holdings...
Unable to load. Retry?